This Phone Upgrade Will Take You Down

I received a text message from AT&T telling me to upgrade the software in my Samsung S II Skyrocket. The message instructed me to log in to a site run by Samsung and download a program called Kies.

I downloaded Kies, and as soon as it loaded, it told me there was an updated program. I was dumbfounded. Does one part of Samsung not know what another part is doing? Well, I downloaded the new version, and when it ran, it said a dll was missing. I copied the error message, Googled it, and found a forum in discussion. It said that if I downloaded Microsoft Visual C++ service pack 3, I would get the dll. OK.

I did that, so Kies finally ran. Oh yes, I also learned to always reboot the computer whenever I use Kies (which I did). Then, I started the download of the upgrade, and the whole system (phone plus Kies) crashed. I was left with an unworkable phone.

I attempted the recovery mode, but was unable to get Kies to do anything. So, I drove to the AT&T store (a decent-sized one with a dozen employees). They were unable to help, and they did not have any Kies capability. I expected a technician with a test bench, but did not find one, and none of the AT&T computers could receive anything outside their network.

So, I called the Samsung help desk from the AT&T store and they wanted to walk me through Kies. Since I couldn't connect, I headed home and called from there. On my second call, the help desk walked me through a hard reboot of the phone. I did this by holding the two volume keys and the power key. The phone rebooted, but I still got the error screen. We had no luck, and the help desk suggested I find a tech shop with a Kies computer.

I started trolling, and found a method for upgrading the phone in Kies. I followed the instructions, and, on one of the reboots, I got a different screen for a brief moment. I had been getting a black error screen, but the brief screen was an Android character. I figured it was worth it to try reloading. So, I attempted the reload with the error screen, but the Kies computer screen acted like it was working. And, lo and behold, it did work.

I find it hard to believe that AT&T and Samsung rely on such a poor program to support their phones, and have no capability at their store. I am a fairly good tech, and I would imagine most phone users are not at my level. I did find a program called Odin that would perform similar functions to Kies, but I would recommend a high skill level if you choose to use Odin.

This entry was submitted by Mike O'Dorney and edited by Rob Spiegel.

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I don't think this problem will get fixed until there is a class action suit against the suppliers. That might take a 1-2 punch of bringing the request for calss action before a judge who has been frustrated as well. This is a new business and we are in the Wild West. There will be consumer protection eventually but it is likely to be too late for me. The same sort of things happened in the 19th century with boiler safety and railroad signaling.

Sometimes people try to get too deeply involved with their phones and computers without having a full understanding of what they are doing. Sadly, this happens frequently, even among people who are "techies." It is foolish to think, unless you are the designer of the phone, or developer of the software/firmware, that you have much of an understanding.

This is the age of disposable consumer electronics. If the phone has a problem, exchange it under warranty or throw it in the trash (after smashing it into submission with a hammer- please wear safety goggles) and get another one. Don't get the same model/brand if you didn't like the first one, and be sure to advertise loudly that the old one was a piece of crap.

That reminded me. A friend of mine just bought a new phone and had a question about it. He brought it to me instead of where he bought it(even though I know hardly anything about phones). I asked him why not ask the guys at the store and he said...ohh they won't know. I think if you sell phones you should have a knowledgable staff to answer questions and fix problems. It's ridiculous to have to research the information yourself when you just purchased a product. Just a thought!

In the late 90's I worked on the Engineering side of the CDMA build out for. Our phones had special firmware in them for testing the system, and was regularly upgraded. This required the phones my team was using to make a trip back to Illinois and was done in phases so if something went wrong the team could still function at a reduced rate. One such upgrade fried the first batch phones they did the upgrade on, I was lucky in that my phone was slated for the second round which did work as advertised

I'm an Old Fogy, too, Rkinner. Work provides me with a Blackberry, but I rarely use it -- partly because I'm not aware of all of its functions. However, it's a completely different story with my teenage daughter and my 24-year-old son. A smartphone is a necessity in their view of the world.

Guess I'm showing my age but I haven't found a strong enough reason to have a smart phone, no matter the manufacturer or service provider. This just gives me another reason to stay on the sidelines.

I have a simple voice phone (what a concept, talking on a phone) and it seems to do what I need. Yes, I have a separate GPS for driving in unfamilar locales and that does fine without a monthly service fee. I did get dragged into the 21st Century with a Kindle Fire which serves as a PDA and reader - didn't know if I would have problems converting from a Palm PDA but it sucked up my data and I haven't looked back.

Give me a non-wireless service device using WiFi and I'm happy. There is not many hotels without that minimum service and I can live without a notice every 5 minutes about my recent e-mails. I'm an "Old Fogy" and proud of it.

Would NEVER have this problem IF we were still programming w/ HOLLERITH Cards!

What I believe is on of the fundamental problems is that today's applications are no less than hundreds of thousands of lines of code, and there isn't a person alive who can retain all the threads, variables, states, etc. with such precision to guarantee overall success. Patches have always been problematic, and will continue to be, especially given that there are literally teams of people building individual modules, which magically get sewn together into the app that fails!

Look at MICROSOFT as the best example..... WINDOWS recently celebrated its 3oth anniversary, and it's still full of bugs, anomalies, incompatibilities, securities holes, and every other negative adjective that one can assign to the product! And, yet, has MICROSOFT undertaken the challenge to "clean up" their product? Heck NO!... they just continue to build on the quicksand of WINDOWS 3.1!

The problem with more an more computer based products is that the end user is not the considered to be the owner of his device. So called upgrades that cause the device to funtion in a different manner, Upgrades that break other software.

In the past I have have Linux ask if I wanted to upgrade, and then it did a complete compatability scan and told me there wold be a problem because of a certain piece of software I had installed. It also asked if I would allow the update to make the changes required or if I wanted to hold off.

Windows, on the other hand went and performed an update, and then proceded to crash because I was using daemon tools lite. No warnings, just my computer doesn't boot. Fortuately I had Ubuntu installed and I could still boot to Linux and look for a solution...

Or my Android phone - recently performed and upgrade - now the phone diler app is different and very annoyng. WHY???? and the calender lost all my dates... And here I foolishly thought that an udate was supposed to improve something.

And why did it have to change? because some programmer thinks all change is an improvement? and there is no way to go back to the previous phone app.

I also am a programmer. But I also understand that all change does not equal improvement. And I also try to make it so the end user sees the change as an improvement.

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